Taglines: Life is a journey. Family is a trip.
The Hudsons are an upper middle class family living in New York City. Wife / mother Diane Hudson is a conservative-minded lawyer. Late teen daughter Zoe Hudson is an aspiring poet, whose associated lifestyle includes being a moral vegetarian and who would like to end up in a relationship with a like minded person.
Mid-teen son Jake Hudson, a virgin, uses his video camera as his voice because of his insecurity. Although it is well known within their family of four that Diane and husband / father Mark Hudson’s marriage has long ceased being one except in name only, there are different reactions within the family to the news that Mark wants a divorce. To escape from the details of the divorce most specifically not wanting to divide their property, including the children, Diane decides to take Zoe and Jake to visit with Diane’s mother, Grace, upstate in Woodstock.
Diane has been estranged from hippie Grace for twenty years, Diane who saw Grace as never being a supportive mother. As such, Zoe and Jake have never met their maternal grandmother. Diane’s surprise decision is largely to get away from the lifestyle that stifled a happy existence for her with Mark. In the process, Diane wants to reconnect with her mother, but not have Grace provide what she considers negative influences on the children, influences such as Grace’s belief in open love and smoking and selling pot.
Although part of Grace’s social circle in Woodstock, where she is seen as a living legend rather than a crazy old woman, Diane, Zoe and Jake, with a little pushing by Grace, may find a little happiness in Woodstock, Jake with Tara, a coffee shop waitress, Zoe with Cole, an organic butcher, and Diane with Jude, an artisan furniture maker/musician. These new lives for Zoe and Diane in particular are threatened by Zoe needing to overcome what she considers Cole’s barbaric occupation, and what Diane finds out about Jude and Grace’s history.
Peace, Love & Misunderstanding is a 2011 American comedy-drama film directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Elizabeth Olsen, Nat Wolff, Chace Crawford, Kyle MacLachlan, and Rosanna Arquette. It was filmed in the town of Woodstock, New York, the same town in which the film is set. The film had a gala premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2011. It was released to theaters on June 8, 2012, starting in limited release. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on October 2, 2012.
Peace, Love and Misunderstanding (2012)
Directed by: Bruce Beresford
Starring: Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener, Elizabeth Olsen, Joseph Dunn, Ann Osmond, Robert Bowen Jr., Teri Gibson, Alison Ball, Kyle MacLachlan, Joyce Van Patten, Laurent Rejto
Screenplay by: Christina Mengert, Joseph Muszynski
Production Design by: Carl Sprague
Cinematography by: Andre Fleuren
Film Editing by: John David Allen
Costume Design by: Johann Stegmeir
Set Decoration by: Robert Schleinig
Art Direction by: Elise G. Viola
Music by: Spencer David Hutchings
MPAA Rating: R for drug content and some sexual references.
Distributed by: IFC Films
Release Date: June 8, 2012
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